Board

Angela Chervenak

Interim Executive Director – Kodiak

The AAEC welcomes our new Interim Executive Director! Angie brings district administrative experience along with a gift for leadership as a principal, teacher and band director. Currently a board member of the Humane Society of Kodiak and the Kodiak Community Foundation, Angie was also a previous AAEC board member.

Peggy Azuyak

Co-chair- Western, Kodiak, FY24

Peggy was born and raised in Kodiak, and returned to the Kodiak Island Borough School District upon completing her Master’s Degree in Education. For thirteen years, she lived and worked in Old Harbor, on the eastern side of the island, where she served as the Special Education Teacher, began learning the Sugt’stun language and cultural arts. In 2015, she relocated to Kodiak and currently serves as the Principal of the KIBSD Rural Schools. Peggy also teaches Alutiiq Language for the Alutiiq Studies Department at UAA’s Kodiak College.

Robin Child

Co-chair – Interior, Fairbanks, FY26

Robin Child currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Elementary Education at University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is passionate about connecting children with their geographical place, culture, and identity through the arts, and considers it a privilege to help inspire new educators with creative ideas to enhance their own teaching practices. She shifted from the Arctic to the Interior as a board representative for the AAEC in 2019, transitioning from her role as the Arts Integration Facilitator for the Bering Strait School District. She loves to play music (classical piano and old-time banjo) and to work with the medium of the cyanotype- which merges a passion for the outdoors, and processes of photography and printmaking. She lives in Fairbanks and McCarthy with her husband and 2 year old daughter.

Jeanne Kitayama

Treasurer – Southeast, Haines, FY26

Jeanne Kitayama is a long-time Haines resident, semi-retired teacher, and owner of the Haines Brewing Company. She came to Alaska as a forestry technician, and fell in love with Haines in 1983. From selling sushi out of her truck, to school librarian, then museum educator, to certificated teacher, where she continues to follow the practices of Project Zero, Waldorf, and brain research in teaching and learning.

Kim Sweeny

Secretary/Treasurer Assistant – Member-at-Large, Homer, FY25

Kim lived, taught and brought the arts to her school in White Mountain from 1977 to 2011. As a Governor’s Arts and Humanities Award recipient, she was actively involved in Bering Strait School District Arts resource and program development and New Visions planning. Kim also worked on Alaska State Council on the Arts teams to increase arts integration and delivery in Alaska. In retirement she continues to learn and share news of the benefits of the arts for Alaskan students.

Hannah Johnston

Southcentral, Eagle River, FY26

Hannah Johnston teaches classroom music at Homestead Elementary in Eagle River, Alaska. Johnston is also the Elementary Music Curriculum Support Specialist for the Anchorage School District. She has served as Southcentral Board representative on the AAEC board since 2014. Johnston graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a Master of Arts in Trumpet Performance, Bachelor of Music in K-12 Music Education and Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance. She is currently in her 14th year with the Anchorage School District. She is a Collegial Cohort Facilitator in addition to serving as a Mentor for first, second and transition educators. Johnston currently serves on ASD Elementary Music’s Advisory Committee and ASD Elementary Music’s Curriculum Committee. She is the current Past-President of the Alaska Music Educators Association. She also plays trumpet in the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra. Johnston has taught courses and served as presenter for district and state professional development conferences and in-services. Her passions include spending precious time with family, camping, writing and performing music and traveling.

Todd Hindman

Member-at-Large, Homer, FY25

Todd is a newly retired science and math educator. He began his career teaching science in Dallas, Texas before moving to Alaska in 1997 to teach in Sand Point. He then moved to Nome where he spent 17 years at Anvil City Science Academy, before moving to Homer to become the principal at Fireweed Academy. Todd’s love of the arts developed early on and he has always incorporated it into his teaching practices. His experience with Artists in Schools (AIS) programs in Nome solidified his belief in the importance of the arts in public education. As a teacher he saw the many hidden talents his students emerge through their immersion in AIS projects. Normally these talents would not be seen on a day to day basis in his science and math classes. Todd returns to the AAEC board in 2022, after a six year hiatus, and is looking forward to helping other educators bring the arts into their classrooms.

Sonta Hamilton Roach

Interior, Shageluk, FY25

Ade’ Yuxudz, (hello everyone)! Sonta Hamilton Roach si’ezre (my name is). Sonta works as Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and within the Department of Alaska Native Students and Rural Development. Previous to this, she taught for ten years, grades K-12, at the Innoko River School in Shageluk, Alaska. She has worked to develop cultural arts programming at the school and leveraged additional funding and partnerships to provide support for student learning outcomes focused in cultural arts. She also does cross country running with the students at the school, and she works as a consultant in the area of community development, strategic planning and facilitation, grant writing and program management. When she’s not teaching, she’s usually out in the woods with her family living off the land.

Nita Rearden

Member-at-Large, Homer, FY25

Nita Yurrliq Rearden, is a Yup’ik person, born and raised in Kotlik, Alaska on the lower Yukon River. After earning a degree in education she taught in Bethel for the Lower Kuskokwim School District and in Kotzebue for the Northwest Arctic Borough School District for a total of 28 years; she continues to work as an education consultant. Nita has a deep interest in Yup’ik art and developed a set of Art Kits for teachers, and spends time teaching educators how to use them and how to integrate cultural knowledge into all teaching. She advocates Alaska’s cultural and art standards and is a board member of the AAEC.

Katy Ritter

Southeast, Juneau, FY25

Katy Ritter was hired by the Juneau School District in 2008, and has been working as an elementary school teacher at Sayeik: Gastineau School on Douglas Island for the past 18 years. Her passion is teaching through the arts, and has been fortunate enough to participate in several arts institutes sponsored by the AAEC, as well as the Artful Teaching cohort for the past 10 years, a group of Juneau teachers who receive year-round professional development in arts integration. Katy served on the district arts curriculum committee to develop and updated the K-12 arts curriculum for the Juneau School District. When she is not devising new ways to integrate tableau, drama, dance, or shadow puppets into her science and social studies lesson plans, she enjoys swimming, knitting, and birding. She currently teaches 34 energetic and enthusiastic 4th & 5th graders.

Anna Widman

Southcentral, Kenai, FY25

 Kenai, Alaska resident Anna Widman has taught visual art and language arts at Kenai Alternative High School. Anna loves integrating the arts into her school’s curriculum and seeing how the students come alive through arts experience! The arts are a passion she hopes to convey in her interactions with students and teachers in Alaska and beyond!

As an artist, Anna explores landscape and its connection to the body, mind, and heart. Through running, photography, and painting she works on texturally rich canvas. She also has a small pottery business and loves working with clay and sculpture. Anna received her Master’s in Fine Arts degree from Lesley University in 2019 and is a lifelong learner.